HENRY  EVANS  AND  NEGRO 
METHODISM 

BY  STEPHEN  B.  WEEKS 

WITH  its  strong  appeal  to  the  emotions  and  its  emphasis  on 
experience,  Methodism  has  always  been  popular  among 
Negroes.  Indeed,  among  Southern  Negroes  the  Methodists  and 
the  Baptists,  who  represent  an  essentially  similar  type  of  religious 
life,  are  in  a  very  large  majority,  and  to  one  of  this  race  the  whole 
Methodist  organization  in  Fayetteville,  N.  C,  traces  its  orgin. 

The  first  preacher  and  teacher  of  Methodism  in  that  town 
was  Henry  Evans,  a  Negro.  We  know  very  little  of  the  life  of 
this  early  preacher,  and  almost  all  that  we  do  know  with  cer- 
tainty comes  from  the  autobiography  of  Rev.  William  Capers, 
bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  who  was  the 
preacher  in  charge  of  the  Methodist  congregation  in  Fayetteville 
at  the  time  of  the  death  of  Evans.  Another  source  of  some  in- 
formation is  the  autobiography  of  Rev.  James  Jenkins,  a  travel- 
ing Methodist  preacher  of  the  Carolinas  who  visited  him  in  1802. 

Bishop  Capers  introduces  his  story  of  Henry  Evans  in  an 
unusual  way: 

"But  the  most  remarkable  man  in  Fayetteville  when  I  went 
there,  and  who  died  during  my  stay,  was  a  Negro  by  the  name 
of  Henry  Evans.  I  say  the  most  remarkable  in  view  of  his  class; 
and  I  call  him  Negro  with  unfeigned  respect.  He  was  of  that 
race  without  any  admixture  of  another.  The  name  simply  des- 
ignates the  race  and  it  is  vulgar  to  regard  it  with  opprobrium. 
I  have  known  and  loved  and  honored  not  a  few  Negroes  in 
my  life,  who  were  probably  as  pure  of  heart  as  Evans,  or  any- 
body else.  Such  were  my  old  friends,  Castile  Selby  and  John 
Boquet  of  Charleston,  Will  Campbell  and  Harry  Myrick  of  Wil- 
mington, York  Cohen  of  Savannah,  and  others  I  might  name. 
These  I  might  call  remarkable  for  their  goodness.  But  I  use  the 
word  in  a  broader  sense  for  Henry  Evans,  who  was  confessedly 
the  father  of  the  Methodist  church,  white  and  black,  in  Fayette- 
ville, and  the  best  preacher  of  his  time  in  that  quarter;  and  who 
was  so  remarkable  as  to  have  become  the  greatest  curiosity  of 
the  town,  insomuch  that  distinguished  visitors  hardly  felt  that 
they  might  pass  a  Sunday  in  Fayetteville  without  hearing  him 
preach." 


HENRY  EVANS  AND  NEGRO  METHODISM 


689 


It  is  said  that  Evans  was  born  in  Virginia  of  free  parents, 
and  as  he  was  "almost  too  feeble  to  stand"  at  the  time  of  his 
death  in  1810  we  may  perhaps  safely  carry  back  the  date  of  his 
birth  to  1730  or  1735.  He  became  a  Christian  and  a  Methodist 
when  quite  young  and  was  licensed  to  preach  in  Virginia.  There 
is  a  report  also  that  he  removed  from  Virginia  to  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Doub's  Chapel  in  what  was  then  Stokes,  now  Forsyth 
County,  North  Carolina,  and  while  there  was  also  licensed  to 
preach.  He  stayed  there  about  a  year,  but  being  a  shoemaker 
by  trade  and  thinking  to  improve  his  financial  condition,  he 
determined  to  remove  to  Charleston,  South  Carolina.  It  was 
while  on  his  way  southward  from  Stokes  that  he  was  detained 
for  a  few  days  in  Fayetteville.  Here,  like  St.  Paul,  his  spirit 
was  stirred  within  him  "at  perceiving  that  the  people  of  his  race 
in  that  town  were  wholly  given  to  profanity  and  lewdness,  never 
hearing  preaching  of  any  denomination,  and  living  emphatically 
without  hope  and  without  God  in  the  world." 

Bishop  Capers  then  continues  his  narrative  as  follows : 

"This  determined  him  to  stop  in  Fayetteville;  and  he  began 
to  preach  to  the  Negroes,  with  great  effect.  The  town  council 
interfered,  and  nothing  in  his  power  could  prevail  with  them  to 
permit  him  to  preach.  He  then  withdrew  to  the  sandhills  out- 
side of  the  town,  and  held  meetings  in  the  woods,  changing  his 
appointments  from  place  to  place.  No  law  was  violated,  while 
the  council  was  effectually  eluded;  and  so  the  opposition  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  mob.  These  he  worried  out  by  changing 
his  appointments,  so  that  when  they  went  to  work  their  will 
upon  him  he  was  preaching  somewhere  else.  Meanwhile,  what- 
ever the  most  honest  purpose  of  a  simple  heart  could  do  to  recon- 
cile his  enemies  was  employed  by  him  for  that  end.  He  eluded 
no  one  in  private  but  sought  opportunities  to  explain  himself; 
avowed  the  purity  of  his  intentions,  and  even  begged  to  be  sub- 
jected to  the  scrutiny  of  any  surveillance  that  might  be  thought 
proper  to  prove  his  inoffensiveness. 

"  Happily  for  him  and  the  cause  of  religion,  his  honest  coun- 
tenance and  earnest  pleadings  were  soon  powerfully  seconded  by 
the  fruits  of  his  labors.  One  after  another  began  to  suspect 
their  servants  of  attending  his  preaching,  not  because  they  were 
made  worse,  but  wonderfully  better.  The  effect  on  the  public 
morals  of  the  Negroes,  too,  began  to  be  seen,  particularly  as 
regarded  drunkenness  and  their  habits  on  Sunday.  It  was  not 
long  before  the  mob  was  called  oft*  by  a  change  in  the  current  of 
opinion,  and  Evans  was  allowed  to  preach  in  town.  At  that  time 
there  was  not  a  single  church  edifice  in  the  city,  and  but  one 
congregation  (Presbyterian)  which  worshiped  in  what  was  called 
the  statchouse,  under  which  was  the  market;  and  it  was  plainly 


690 


THE  SOUTHERN  WORKMAN 


Evans  or  nobody  to  preach  to  the  Negroes.  Now,  too,  not  a  few 
mistresses  and  some  masters  were  brought  to  think  that  the 
preaching  which  had  proved  so  beneficial  to  their  servants  might 
be  good  for  them  also;  and  the  famous  Negro  preacher  had  some 
whites  as  well  as  blacks  to  hear  him.  Among  these  were  my  old 
friends,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lumsden,  Mrs.  Bowen  (for  many  years 
preceptress  of  the  Female  Academy),  Mrs.  Malsby,  and,  I  think, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Blake.  From  these  the  gracious  influence  spread 
to  others,  and  a  meeting-house  was  built.  It  was  a  frame  of 
wood,  weather-boarded  only  on  the  outside,  without  plastering, 
and  about  fifty  feet  long  by  thirty  feet  wide." 

Unfortunately  Bishop  Capers  gives  no  dates  for  these  inter- 
esting occurrences,  but  we  are  able  to  fix  them  as  antedating 
1802,  for  in  that  year  Rev.  James  Jenkins  visited  Fayetteville  and 
writes  in  his  autobiography: 

"We  had  no  white  society  there  at  that  time;  I  found,  how- 
ever, a  small  society  of  colored  people,  under  the  care  of  a  col- 
ored man  by  the  name  of  Evans,  who  preached  to  them  regu- 
larly, and  no  ordinary  preacher  was  he.  I  visited  him  every 
round  and  encouraged  him  all  I  could,  and  furnished  him  with  a 
steward's  book  in  which  to  register  whatever  might  appertain  to 
his  office.  About  this  time  he  leased  a  lot  for  seven  years  and 
commenced  building  a  church,  twenty  by  thirty  feet,  out  of 
rough-edged  materials.  They  met  the  expenses  themselves,  ex- 
cept $5,  which  was  given  them  by  a  white  man.  This  was  the 
first  Methodist  church  in  the  place;  it  was  called  'the  Negro 
church.'  In  a  short  time  it  became  crowded,  and  an  addition  of 
ten  feet  was  made  to  it." 

In  1803  Mr.  Jenkins  writes:  "  Old  Sister  Malsby,  who  was 
then  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  and  who,  as  I  was 
told,  had  been  led  out  of  the  public  congregation  for  shouting, 
asked  me  if  she  might  come  in  among  the  Negroes  ?  This  was 
the  first  white  member  we  had  in  the  place." 

If  we  turn  again  to  Bishop  Capers  we  will  find  the  result  of 
the  step  taken  by  "  old  Sister  Malsby."  He  says:  "Seats,  dis- 
tinctly separated,  were  at  first  appropriated  to  the  whites,  near 
the  pulpit.  But  Evans  had  already  become  famous,  and  these 
seats  were  insufficient.  Indeed,  the  Negroes  seemed  likely  to 
lose  their  preacher,  Negro  though  he  was,  while  the  whites, 
crowded  out  of  their  appropriate  seats,  took  possession  of  those 
in  the  rear.  Meanwhile  Evans  had  represented  to  the  preacher 
of  Bladen  circuit  how  things  were  going,  and  induced  him  to  take 
his  meeting-house  into  the  circuit  and  constitute  a  church  there. 
And  now  there  was  no  longer  room  for  the  Negroes  in  the  house 
when  Evans  preached;  and  for  the  accommodation  of  both  classes, 
^    the  weather-boards  were  knocked  off  and  sheds  added  to  the 


HENRY  EVANS  AND  NEGRO  METHODISM 


691 


house  on  either  side,  the  whites  occupying  the  whole  of  the  orig- 
inal building,  and  the  Negroes  those  sheds  as  a  part  of  the  same 
house.  Evans's  dwelling  was  a  shed  at  the  pulpit  end  of  the 
church." 

Of  Evans  himself  Bishop  Capers  says:  "  I  have  not  known 
many  preachers  who  appeared  more  conversant  with  the  Scriptures 
than  Evans,  or  whose  conversation  was  more  instructive  as  to 
the  things  of  God.  He  seemed  always  deeply  impressed  with  the 
responsibility  of  his  position;  and  not  even  our  old  friend  Castile 
was  more  remarkable  for  his  humble  and  deferential  deportment 
towards  the  whites  than  Evans  was.  Nor  would  he  allow  any 
partiality  of  his  friends  to  induce  him  to  vary  in  the  least  degree 
the  line  of  conduct  or  the  bearing  which  he  had  prescribed  for 
himself  in  this  respect.  And  yet  Henry  Evans  was  a  Boanerges, 
and  in  his  duty  feared  not  the  face  of  man." 

Of  Evans's  death,  which  occurred  between  June  13  and  Decem- 
ber 22,  1810,  the  inclusive  dates  of  Bishop  Capers'  pastorate  in 
Fayetteville,  he  has  this  to  say: 

"It  was  my  practice  to  hold  a  meeting  with  the  blacks  in  the 
church  directly  after  morning  preaching  every  Sunday.  And 
on  the  Sunday  before  the  death  of  Evans,  during  this  meeting, 
the  little  door  between  his  humble  shed  and  the  chancel  where 
I  stood  was  opened,  and  the  dying  man  entered  for  a  last  fare- 
well to  his  people.  He  was  almost  too  feeble  to  stand  at  all,  but, 
supporting  himself  by  the  railing  of  the  chancel,  he  said:  '  I  have 
come  to  say  my  last  word  to  you.  It  is  this  :  None  but  Christ. 
Three  times  I  have  had  my  life  in  jeopardy  for  preaching  the 
gospel  to  you.  Three  times  I  have  broken  the  ice  on  the  edge  of 
the  water  and  swum  across  the  Cape  Fear  to  preach  the  gospel  to 
you.  And  now,  if  in  my  last  hour  I  could  trust  to  that,  or  to  any- 
thing else  but  Christ  crucified,  for  my  salvation,  all  would  be 
lost  and  my  soul  perish  forever.'  A  noble  testimony!  Worthy 
not  of  Evans  only,  but  of  St.  Paul.  His  funeral  at  the  church 
was  attended  by  a  greater  concourse  of  persons  than  had  been 
seen  on  any  funeral  occasion  before.  The  whole  community  ap- 
peared to  mourn  his  death,  and  the  universal  feeling  seemed  to 
be  that  in  honoring  the  memory  of  Henry  Evans  we  were  paying 
a  tribute  to  virtue  and  religion.  He  was  buried  under  the  chancel 
of  the  church  of  which  he  had  been  in  so  remarkable  a  manner 
the  founder." 

Bishop  Asbury  also  bears  testimony  to  the  thoroughness  of 
Evans's  work.  He  was  at  Fayetteville  in  1811  and  writes  in  his 
Journal:  "Preached;  our  house  is  too  small;  preached  in  the 
afternoon;  we  must  enlarge  our  house."  By  January  1814,  this 
desire  had  probably  been  attained,  for  the  congregation  was  then 
strong  enough  and  the  house  of  worship  large  enough  to  enter- 
tain the  South  Carolina  Conference  and  thus,  in  the  case  of 
Henry  Evans,  were  the  Scriptures  fulfilled,  "for  his  works  did 
follow  him." 


